So, not only are you lazy, but you’re also unmotivated? Simply put, laziness is the failure to do what you ought to do while you’re able to do it. Slowly but surely, this cankerworm comes into your life and holds you down. It can change the course of your life and hinder you from achieving what you’re meant to. You might feel like you’re having a rest well deserved but as time goes on, you entertain it a little more, and then, it becomes a part of you. If laziness creeps into and dominates your system, nothing will be enough to motivate you.

The first step towards setting yourself free from this menace of being lazy and unmotivated is having a clear understanding of what it is all about. If you can answer the question, ‘why am I so lazy and unmotivated?’ successfully, you’re on your way to becoming free from its claws. Understanding the main causes of laziness is the key step towards conquering laziness. Let’s take a look at the major causes of laziness:

Poor time allocation

One of the biggest causes of laziness is the poor allocation of time to activities. The lifestyle led by some people is completely careless and unplanned. They can stay up late into the night spending time on social media and engaging in other unproductive ventures, at the expense of an early day at work the next day. Time flies when you engage in unimportant things and before you know it, the day is far spent with you having nothing to show for it.

Social media, most especially,  is time-consuming when you’re not making money from it. You’ll be busy keeping up with the lives of other people while you neglect the things that matter. You’ll find yourself sleeping through the day or feeling drowsy thereby having an unproductive day. At the end of the day, your mind requires enough rest to be able to function maximally. When you don’t get enough rest, it’ll affect the effectiveness of your performance during the day.

Procrastination

Procrastination births laziness when you constantly postpone things that need to be done. Whether urgent or not, what’s the need to postpone it when you can get it over with at the moment? Procrastination is a prominent characteristic of lazy people. They’ll postpone even the simplest tasks and time goes by, complicating or piling the task the more. It makes solutions to problems more difficult to proffer.
The easiest way to overcome procrastination is by taking on tasks as soon as possible. Get it done now. Once your mind is made up to get it done, push yourself up and get it done. If the task so takes a lot of time and resources and you don’t have a lot of time at the moment, you can schedule it for a more convenient time.

Fatigue

We tend to push ourselves too hard on some workdays. We get so exhausted that we barely take our clothes and shoes off before passing out on our beds. When this happens, we barely make time for ourselves and our loved ones after a hectic day at work. Every type of activity needs a clear mind and energy. Exhaustion dulls the mind and hinders the body from functioning productively. I advise that you prioritize your activities and plan how you spend your time wisely. This will help you to clear off the most important things you have to do for the day before the first signs of exhaustion sets in.

Distraction

You’re distracted when your mind wanders off to totally unrelated things when you’re doing important things. The more distracted you are, the less likely it is for you to complete whatever it is you are doing. Distraction is mostly caused by talkative friends, the excitement of upcoming events, and social media.
The best way to avoid distractions is by tuning off from every source of distraction. Think of the time you waste when you’re distracted and think of all the important things you can achieve with all that time. You might not want to do away with the distractions completely.
Just cut down on the time you give to them.

Absence of Motivation

The right kind of motivation is all you need to get up and get things done at the right time. When you love the things you do, you’ll be motivated to get things done and on time too. Lack of motivation makes you find a million and one excuses why you can’t get things done.
So, are you rightly motivated? What kind of motivation do you need?

Indecision

Your life is ruled by the decisions you make. Sadly, a lot of people battle with making up their minds about certain issues and this is indecision. When you can’t take a stand on certain things that need to be done, laziness creeps in.
For instance, you might have a list of things to do for the day and by afternoon, you haven’t set your priorities. Half of the day is gone already and you’ve done nothing. By the time you make a decision, there might not be enough time to do even half of what you set out to do for the day. What’s this if not laziness?

Being overwhelmed with work

Having a lot of work to do tends to confuse the brain and slow it down. When this happens, the person experiences exhaustion and tries to convince themselves that they can’t get the task done. When one believes that the task before them is too big for them, they have no reason or motivation to even start working on it at all.
This breeds laziness. A quick solution to this problem is breaking a seemingly endless task
into bits. That way, you can get the portions done and invariably, the whole task in no time.

Poor eating habits

Your brain activity and energy level are determined by what you eat. When you don’t take in a balanced diet or you eat poorly, the body cannot get the adequate nutrients it needs to function optimally. You feel weak and end up achieving little to nothing. When this becomes a cycle, laziness sets in.

So, I hope your worries on “Why am I so lazy and unmotivated?” will be resolved with this short and precise article. Thanks.

Writer: Favour Nonye
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State, Nigeria.